It can be any of a million reasons. Service failures, mergers and acquisitions and the new owners have an organization they work with, or the referring person changes jobs. Because of this fact, we need to make sure that we have representatives that are out continually adding new accounts that refer to us.
Ask any Sales Representative out there, and they will all tell you how much they love to do cold calls! They like to be out doing prospecting visits all day long! Not! Sales reps by far hate to do prospecting calls and we as sales managers commit one of the worst mistakes because we do not recognize this as a sign and symptom of failure.
Me being an RN, I have to diagnosis each rep that I work with to look for what illness I have to treat! Not really, but the prospecting phobia is widespread in sales representatives. Prospecting is like asking someone to tell you no! No one wants to hear no we do not refer all day!
Sales Representatives then avoid doing this, and we avoid teaching this skill. As owners or sales managers, we fail to provide our reps with the needed skills! One easy way to conquer this necessary skill is to classify prospecting into two different sales skills.
Also, into two different sales calls: Survey + Differentiating = Prospecting.
If we tackle each skill separately, we will develop a rock-solid account building machine! The survey visit must be done to ensure that the account qualifies for your representative to be prospecting the building at all.
Provide your rep with a survey form or home health referral source form for them to use if they prefer to have a script in front of them or provide them with probing questions to obtain the information, they need to ensure that this is an account that is willing and able to refer to them each month.
This survey visit must be practiced with each rep monthly with role-playing scenarios for each account type that the rep will call on. Have the most common objections ready to role-play with the rep to challenge their answers!
Make sure that when they get done asking their five questions in 2 min (those of you that are HPSA graduates precisely know what I mean) that they are BAAFAAing. That is not a spelling error, just an acronym for Book an appointment from an appointment!
For example, if you are saying you are surveying to see how the account is currently working with hospice, home health, or private pay, you can use that to set up your next call.
You could say this for example, ?I would love to share with you what other (state account type) ALF?s said during the survey, I will stop by next week same day to review them with you and it will only take again about 2 min?.
It is incredible how curiosity about what?s happening in the competition makes them want to speak to your sales representative. The first time you go back to an account that you did your survey visit, and they are willing and able to refer to you is called your 1st prospecting visit or Differentiating visit.
This sales call is to provide them with a reason they should refer to you? What are your unique selling points that your rep can present? I would suggest you have a list of 10 ready for each rep to use as needed, but if not, it is okay you can always buy the High-Performance Sales Academy, and you will learn how to differentiate your organization there for sure!
The website is HomeCareSales.com. Remind your rep, not to brochure vomit all over the account at this visit and to always set up a reason why you are coming back to see them next week! An example of what to say during this sales call would be,
?Thank you for completing the survey last week about how you currently work with home health to prevent hospitalizations. I wanted to let you know that the other ALF?s in the area reported that they like to work with my agency because we have an incredible dementia care plan that can help keep dementia patients out of the hospital. We believe that staff needs to be trained differently to identify issues with patients that have cognitive deficits. Our agency trains our clinical team on the top issues related to dementia care to keep your beds full. An example is we train our aids in feeding demented patients, and how to identify pain in a non-verbal patient. Do you have a patient that we can discuss today who can benefit from our dementia care program??
Conducting your sales call in this manner is a beneficial way to build your relationship with a new account. Training your staff in this area is also, quite easy, it is available online. Now, you have a program, ?Dementia Care Program?. You now have a differentiator to share with them.
You have been respectful of their time because your sales calls are short and to the point without brochure vomiting all over. You have identified that you will bring value to solving a problem of keeping their beds full and you have made your organization stand out from all the other ones!
Spend time with your team and have a defined expectation of how much time each representative should spend on prospecting new accounts each week. Ensure by checking their calendar for next week that they have identified targets to go out and survey, as well as make sure they can verbally articulate these sales calls as well as the differentiate sales call!
I know I wish there were resources available to me and my team back in the day, so I created them for you. If you are struggling, I have your solution. The High-Performance Sales Academy is the answer!
If you are purchasing for just yourself or one rep, please go directly to homecaresales.com, and you can begin immediately! If you would like group pricing, we offer group licensing, at a low monthly price with a min of one-year commitment! Email Jason to obtain group pricing at Jason@homecaresales.com.
I believe together we can educate every doctor, NP, Discharge planner and social worker out there, on how we can help people who are currently suffering from an acute illness or a chronic condition to receive the services they so deserve! Your services!
If you?re an owner, I want you to know we have a growth summit coming up in Las Vegas, 2019 fall! I am giving away 10 tickets! FREE tickets! If you want to be considered to receive a free ticket, please email me
Cheryl@homecaresales.com. I am looking forward to becoming your organization’s partner in success!
Cheryl Peltekis, RN ?The Solutionist?
Co-Owner of Home Care Sales
